The Maze Runner (2014)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2014
	Director: Wes Ball
	Actors: Dylan O'Brien, Kaya Scodelario, Will Poulter (We're The Millers), Thomas Brodie-Sangster (Game of Thrones TV-series)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Fantasy, Action
	Conditions of visioning: 02.02.2018, in-flight entertainment system, 10" tablet screen.
Synopsis: Thomas (O'Brien) wakes up in an elevator that leads to a clearing in a middle of a giant maze. He meets the other boys that have arrived there before him, but he is more curious than many.
Review: Yet another pseudo-SF movie with teenagers, for teenagers, in which a post-apocalyptic scenario gives the right to the screenplay writers (well, bestseller book writer before them) to invent any possible Universe with unexplained rules that just fit the story. The closest comparison that comes to mind is The Hunger Games but there are others. Fitting the environment to what you want your characters to become is so much easier than working out how to make them evolve in the set of rules present in our world. That would be my main criticism of that movie: that the Universe created is not believable and just a pretense (and a help) to see teenagers struggle for their life. This is pretty obvious and embarrassing during the closing revelation. Besides that, the movie is well-done and the characters easy to follow, although not as strong and memorable as Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games. It may help to watch this Action movie on a (home) cinema screen. The ideas about what happens in the maze are not too bad although predictable, and the strength of the movie is how it accelerates in its third act to quickly take you to a resolution, although partial, that is not something given in the case of pre-programmed sagas like this one. Another good point for this movie is that it was successful enough to finance the two planned sequels. This is also not always given (see The 5th Wave). Not what I would call an adult SF story like I would prefer, but I may watch those sequels after a while for more of the same thing.
Rating: 4 /10